Chapters 14–16

Chapters 14–16

Chapters 14–16

Chapters 14–16

Chapters 14–16

Chapters 14–16

Summary: Chapter 14

Jim and Huck find a number of valuables among the robbers’ bounty
from the Walter Scott, mostly books, clothes, and
cigars. As they relax in the woods and wait for nightfall before
traveling again, Huck reads books from the wreck, and the two discuss
what Huck calls their “adventures.” Jim says he doesn’t enjoy adventures,
as they could easily end in his death or capture. Huck astonishes
Jim with stories of kings, first reading from books and then adding
some of his own, made-up stories. Jim had only heard of King Solomon, whom
he considers a fool for wanting to chop a baby in half. Huck cannot
convince Jim otherwise. Huck tells Jim about the dauphin (whom Huck
mistakenly calls the “dolphin”), the son of the executed King Louis
XVI of France. The dauphin currently is rumored to be wandering
America. Jim refuses to believe that the French do not speak English,
as Huck explains. Huck tries to argue the point with Jim but gives
up in defeat.

Summary: Chapter 15

Huck and Jim approach the Ohio River, their goal. One
foggy night, Huck, in the canoe, gets separated from Jim and the
raft. He tries to paddle back to the raft, but the fog is so thick
that he loses all sense of direction. After a lonely time adrift,
Huck reunites with Jim, who is asleep on the raft. Jim is thrilled
to see Huck alive, but Huck tries to trick Jim by pretending that
Jim dreamed up their entire separation. Jim tells Huck the story
of his dream, making the fog and the troubles he faced on the raft
into an allegory of their journey to the free states. But soon Jim
notices all the debris, dirt, and tree branches that collected
on the raft while it was adrift. He gets mad at Huck for making
a fool of him after he had worried about him so much. “It was fifteen
minutes before I could work myself up to go and humble myself to
a nigger,” Huck says, but he eventually apologizes and does not
regret it. He feels bad about hurting Jim.

Summary: Chapter 16

Jim and Huck worry that they will miss Cairo,
the town at the mouth of the Ohio River, which runs into the free
states. Meanwhile, Huck’s conscience troubles him deeply about helping
Jim escape from his “rightful owner,” Miss Watson, especially after
all she has done for Huck. Jim talks on and on about going to the
free states, especially about his plan to earn money to buy the
freedom of his wife and children. If their masters refuse to give
up Jim’s family, Jim plans to have some abolitionists kidnap them.
When Huck and Jim think they see Cairo, Huck goes out on the canoe
to check, having secretly resolved to give Jim up. But Huck’s heart
softens when he hears Jim call out that Huck is his only friend,
the only one to keep a promise to him.

Huck comes upon some men in a boat who want to search
his raft for escaped slaves. Huck pretends to be grateful, saying
no one else would help them. He leads the men to believe that his
family is on board the raft and is suffering from smallpox. The
men, fearing infection, back away and tell Huck to go further downstream
and lie about his family’s condition to get help. Out of pity, they
leave Huck forty dollars in gold. Huck feels bad because he thinks
he has done wrong in not giving Jim up. However, he realizes he
would feel just as bad if he had given Jim up. Huck re solves to
disregard morality in the future and do what’s “handiest.”

Floating along, Huck and Jim pass several towns
and worry that they have passed Cairo in the fog. They stop for
the night and resolve to take the canoe upriver but in the morning
discover that it has been stolen. They attribute the canoe’s disappearance
to continued bad luck from the snakeskin on Jackson’s Island. Later,
a steamboat collides with the raft, breaking it apart. Jim and Huck
dive off in time but are separated. Huck makes it ashore, but a
pack of dogs corners him.

Analysis: Chapters 14–16

We see in these chapters that Huck, though open-minded,
still largely subscribes to the Southern white conception of the
world. When Jim assesses their “adventure,” Huck does admit that
he has acted foolishly and jeopardized Jim’s safety, but he qualifies
his assessment by adding that Jim is smart—for a black person. Huck
also genuinely struggles with the question of whether or not to
turn over Jim to the white men who ask if he is harboring any runaway
slaves. In some sense, Huck still believes that turning Jim in would
be the “right” thing to do, and he struggles with the idea that
Miss Watson is a slave owner yet still seems to be a “good” person.
Over the course of these chapters, as he spends more time with Jim,
Huck is forced to question the facts that white society has taught
him and that he has taken for granted.